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Smart sounds An article in today's Advertiser lists 15 words suggested by experts that we should drop from our vocabulary and then supposedly sound smarter. The words are: That Went Honestly Really Very Amazing Absolutely Always Never Literally Just Maybe Stuff Things Irregardless I could easily drop half of these words; but I do like the words Stuff , Things , Maybe and Absolutely . Maybe people would sound a bit smarter, not by dropping some words, but by learning to string words together a bit better. Stuff would sound a lot better; absolutely. Here's a link to the article

Dogs are so good about conning their human companions (aka. owners). They make maximum use of sad and guilty faces when the human gets upset by some dastardly doggy behaviour. The human is convinced that the dog is genuinely remorseful. However, Dr Ljerka Ostojic, a psychologist (for dogs or humans?) at the University of Cambridge, has studied the matter and he suggests that ‘the downcast face is just a human-pleasing facade’. He did a study as follows: He asked volunteer humans to train their dogs to not eat a biscuit A biscuit was placed within reach of the dog After the human left the room the biscuit was either fed to the dog or removed When the owner returned, he/she could not discern from the dog’s face if the dog had eaten it The psychologist believes that the guilty look on dogs stems from distress and not conscience. In the case of multiple dogs in a household, often it was the most timid dog that looked guilty; it simply got more frightened. In...

For some time now, people have talked about when robots will be taking our jobs. It is now claimed that in reality, they have already taken some of our jobs – we simply have not noticed. We know what physical robots can do eg. tasks in car assembly; tasks that are easily programmed. These are tasks that help to make the workplace safer (for humans); who cares if a robot drops a welding hand-piece on its toe! Now we have artificial intelligence robots that mimic what humans do. These are mostly software robots – and they are taking jobs from humans in droves. For example in the UK, the telecoms firm O2 has replaced 150 workers with a single piece of software. Typical tasks involved are Sim swaps, porting mobile numbers, migrating from prepaid onto a contract, unlocking a phone; now automated by software without human intervention. The software (robot) isn't trained how to perform the tasks, rather it watches and then mimics the human tasks. Another example is performing leg...

People can be harsh judges when it comes to noticing spelling errors. I am. However, the judging is harsher when a word is incorrectly used. It makes you look rather foolish. Here’s a link to an article titled 40 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb Take the time to learn the correct use of the words. Don’t worry, many people have a problem with some. Link to incorrectly used words

The International Day for Biological Diversity is to be celebrated on Thursday 22 May, 2014 @ Forestville Reserve. International Day for Biological Diversity Community Event Date: Thursday, 22 May 2014 Venue: Forestville Reserve Time: 10am – 2pm Activities on the day include nest box building, planting native plants and biodiversity talks. Register your interest in participating in the event by contacting Scott Douglas on 8372 5118 or sdouglas@unley.sa.gov.au

I have just had a briefing with Unley Council about an initiative to increase our rate of recycling via our rubbish bins ie. to get more residents to do the right thing. Here is more information ... In accordance with our Waste Management Strategy (2013-2017) and Council overall objective to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill,  we are undertaking a ‘Recycle Right’ bin tagging campaign which lets residents know if they are recycling correctly or if they need further understanding of what can and cannot be recycled.  There are many benefits associated with recycling right.  ·        Diverting materials away from landfill ·        Saving water and energy ·        Helping conserve non-renewable resources ·        Saving on the cost of materials unnecessarily going to landfill ·        Reduci...

Need some help to enter the digital word or to enhance your skills? Then contact the Unley Council Library at the Civic Centre, Unley Road. Courses run from March to June 2014. Here's a link for more information ... http://www.unley.sa.gov.au/librarycomputertraining